The disclosure relates to boost regulators, and in particular, to operating a boost regulator in various operational modes.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A boost regulator is a DC-to-DC (direct current) power converter with an output voltage greater than its input voltage. A boost regulator may also be called a boost converter or a (voltage) step-up converter. A boost regulator is a class of switched-mode power supply (SMPS) containing at least two semiconductor elements (e.g., a diode and a transistor) and at least one energy storage element (e.g., a capacitor, inductor, or the two in combination). Filters made of capacitors (sometimes in combination with inductors) may be added to the output of the boost regulator to reduce output voltage ripple.
Power for the boost regulator can come from any suitable DC sources, such as batteries, solar panels, rectifiers and DC generators. A process that changes one DC voltage to a different DC voltage is called DC to DC conversion. A boost regulator is sometimes called a step-up converter since it “steps up” the source voltage. Since power (P=V*I) must be conserved, the output current is lower than the input current.